Sonia Gandhi calls key Cong meet day after assembly election results

ormer Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday called a key parliamentary strategy committee meeting at 5:30 pm at her residence in 10 Janpath, day after the grand old party's showing in the assembly polls.

This comes a day after the Congress suffered triple setbacks in the Hindi heartland. The grand old party was ousted from power in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, while it failed to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party from retaining power in Madhya Pradesh despite having won the election in 2018.

In the Hindi heartland, the Congress is now in a ruling alliance with the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar and rules Himachal Pradesh.

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The Congress, however, won it big in southern India by wresting Telangana from Bharat Rashtra Samithi. It is the party's second victory in south India after Karnataka.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi took to social media platform X after the results. “We humbly accept the mandate of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan - the battle of ideology will continue. I am very thankful to the people of Telangana - we will definitely fulfil the promise of making Prajalu Telangana. Heartfelt thanks to all the workers for their hard work and support," he said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge thanked the voters of Telangana, while terming the results in the 3 Hindi-speaking states as ‘disappointing’.

“I thank the people of Telangana for the mandate we have received from them. I also thank all those who voted for us in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Our performance in these three states have no doubt been disappointing, but with determination, we reaffirm our strong resolve to rebuild and revive ourselves in these three states,” he posted on X.